Fear Thesaurus Entry: Not Being Believed

Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they’re a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character’s behaviors, habits, beliefs, and personality traits. The compulsion to avoid what they fear will drive characters away from certain people, events, and situations and hold them back in life. 

In your story, this primary fear (or group of fears) will constantly challenge the goal the character is pursuing, tempting them to retreat, settle, and give up on what they want most. Because this fear must be addressed for them to achieve success, balance, and fulfillment, it plays a pivotal part in both character arc and the overall story.

This thesaurus explores the various fears that might be plaguing your character. Use it to understand and utilize fears to fully develop your characters and steer them through their story arc. Please note that this isn’t a self-diagnosis tool. Fears are common in the real world, and while we may at times share similar tendencies as characters, the entry below is for fiction writing purposes only.

Flaws That May Emerge
Addictive, Antisocial, Apathetic, Cynical, Defensive, Dishonest, Evasive, Hostile, Inattentive, Inhibited, Insecure, Nervous, Nosy, Oversensitive, Paranoid, Pessimistic, Resentful, Suspicious, Timid, Uncommunicative, Volatile, Withdrawn

Hindrances and Disruptions to the Character’s Life
Living in isolation
Struggling professionally due to a distrust of those in authority
Being ruled by fear or anger
Quitting jobs rather than telling someone about workplace injustices
Difficulty relating to or accepting people who are similar to those who didn’t believe the character (men, women, police officers, doctors, religious leaders, etc.)
Living with self-doubt because the character doesn’t trust their own instincts
Never knowing who can be trusted
Continuing in a toxic or harmful situation because the character thinks no one will believe them

Scenarios That Might Awaken This Fear
Watching someone go public with a similar problem and lose all credibility in the media
Witnessing behavior at work that should be reported
The character testifying about a crime and their word being questioned
Seeing someone speak out about what happened to them and hearing loved ones blame the victim
Being told by an abuser and that no one will believe the character if they talk
Telling authorities about wrongdoing and seeing nothing happen
Innocently witnessing a crime and being named as a suspect
Being told about an injustice in a way that makes the character question the reporter

Other Fear Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

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